Training Bulletin Issue 32

Gosh, we really don’t get many complaints about that…

Nobody likes to admit to customers that they get a lot of complaints about a specific point, or that they get a lot of complaints in general. In fact, it’s standard advice to people who deal with complaints to avoid saying anything like, “Oh, you’re the sixth person today to ring up about that.”

But what happens if you are required by law to publish the number of complaints you receive? That is exactly the proposal recently put forward by the Financial Services Authority in a response to the Government’s White Paper on financial regulation.

Companies that receive 500 or more complaints every six months would be required to publish figures detailing how many were received, how many closed and how many were upheld. Results would be published in a format that enabled companies’ figures to be compared with their competitors’.

It won’t happen tomorrow – the first figures are due to be published next July. But this means that complaints received from the end of this year will go into the statistics, effectively giving companies six months to raise their game when responding to complaints.

Knowing the best ways to get information

When recording complaints, staff should note:

The complainant's full name and contact details, and their preferred contact method (phone, email, letter)

What the complainant’s preferred resolution is (although you should not suggest that they will receive this)

Question styles that work

When you are asking for information, some sorts of questions work better than others. Here are the kinds of questions that will get the most detailed answers and show that you are paying attention.Open-ended questions, starting with a ‘w’ word, for example:

What happened next?

Who else was there?

When did it take place?

Where did this happen?

Question styles to use with caution

Another couple of words are often suggested in lists like this: how and why. These are also useful but they can possibly draw the complainant into making interpretations rather than just giving facts.

People are often told to avoid closed questions, where the answer can be a plain ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Although a barrage of these sounds like an interrogation, there are times when a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer is all you want so do use closed questions when appropriate.

Question styles to avoid

Some ways to ask things can give the wrong impression. Look out for questions starting with, “You said…”, “You claimed…”, “You stated…” because these can sound confrontational, as if the questioner doubts what was being said, claimed or stated.

A similar impression is produced by questions ending in tags such as, “Didn’t you?”, “Could you?”, “Have you?” and so on. You may feel they are just a neutral speech mannerism but to a customer who is already angry or tense about something, it can seem as if you are badgering them.

Leading questions are those worded in such a way as to suggest the answer the questioner is waiting to hear: “So you weren’t very happy about this?”, “Were you in a hurry when you opened the box?”, “Were you running late when you left?”
Customers with complaints want to tell you about them in their own words, not to go along with your assumptions. And if you make a wrong assumption, there’s the risk they’ll be annoyed, decide you weren’t listening and go right back to the beginning.

Not saying anything

When would you not say anything at all? If you are on the phone, your silence as you write madly or consider things can lead the customer to wonder whether they have been cut off, so avoid this by making the occasional sound like, “Mm,” “I see,” or “Uh huh.” This shows you are still there and paying attention.

Emails and letters to customers

When writing to customers about complaints, you have to take care with wording, grammar, spelling and punctuation. People who are already annoyed will seize on any mistakes they find to justify their attitude that you are incompetent. And if a complaint is complex, it’s very easy to get bogged down in too much information.

Avoid this by planning your reply using the same words that helped you to gather information:

What information do I need to include, and what is irrelevant?

Where do I need to go to find the right answers?

When is the reply due and have I allowed enough time for people to get back to me before then?

Why am I writing this? What do I want it to achieve?

Who am I writing to? Have I made correct assumptions about the complainant? In many cases, writers are not even aware of the assumptions they’ve made.

How will I reply? Are they expecting a call, an email or a letter?

If you want to improve the way you handle complaints or your business may be affected by the new FSA policy, click here to read more about our course on Responding to Complaints.